Futile Minds and Foolish Hearts

Romans 1:18-23

Observe:
God's wrath is being revealed in the present. He doesn't just wait for the "end times" to pour out his righteous judgement against sin and wickedness. The judgement is actually quite similar: at the end of days he will abandon people to the choice they made to live without him, honouring and enforcing that choice for all eternity; in the present he also abandons people to the choices they make to live without him - abandoning the wicked to their sins (v. 24).
I notice also that Paul uses the language of exchanging and concious choices: humans knew the truth but supressed it with wickedness (v. 18-19), the knew God but exchanged his glory for created things.
There is also a contrast between the eternal power and divine nature of God (v. 20) and the futile thinking and foolish hearts of humans (v.21). The issue is that in their folly, humans think that they are wise.

Interpret:
We sometimes think that people are victims of their circumstances, even blaming God for their not being in a position to know and respond to God. Paul disagrees with this view: he says that everyone has the opportunity to know God through his creation (his qualities are clearly seen) and that people have chosen to take the knowledge and truth of God and suppress it with their own choices.
This decision to suppress truth with wickedness and exchange the glory of God for the glory of the created thing is as old as humanity. Adam and Eve made the same choice (in fact, Paul could be talking about Adam and Eve. They knew God but suppressed the truth of God with their choice to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. They exchanged the glory of God for their own glorification - "you will become like gods...").
I believe that Paul is actually talking about Gentiles - people who, at that time, do not have God's truth as revealed in Scripture. His thesis is that righteousness comes from God and is received by faith. He is showing the depravity of those who never had access to the Word of God and proving that they are just as guilty because they could see the nature of God through creation and their conscience.

Interpret:
God is holy and is just. He cannot stand sin and while he appears to be patient in that he is not actively judging the world right now, he is also active in that he is revealing his wrath against the sin and wickedness of humanity. Admittedly it seems strange that he would judge the sinfulness of people by abandoning them to their sin (sort of like trying to get someone to stop smoking by giving them more cigarettes) but maybe God's judgement and patience are intertwined. Maybe he is trying to get people to see the emptiness of their choices - they are being punished because their sin is not ultimately satisfying to them but that dissatisfaction actually draws them to God at the same time.
Personally this serves as a warning - I can't take my knowledge of God for granted. It's possible for me to know God and still exchange the glory of God for lesser things. In fact, because of my sinfulness and brokeness, I prefer the lesser things to the great glory of God. Paul tells me that my depravity can only be overcome by the righteousness that comes from God and I can only receive that righteousness through faith. "The righteous will live by faith."